1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a manual cutting device, more particularly to a cutting device for block-shaped food, e.g. cheese or chocolate, block-shaped food to be cut by the cutting device is able to be repeatedly refilled and is able to be cut to a power, strip or thin-sheet status.
2. Description of Related Art
In western cooking, block-shaped food, e.g. cheese or chocolate, is often cut to a power, strip or thin-sheet status and sprayed and mixed in food for enhancing flavors. A commonly-seen grinding tool is a file tool, knife sections, e.g. holes or slots, are formed by punching a metal sheet, food held in hands is repeatedly grinded on the file tool for obtaining a desired shape or status.
For ensuring hygiene and storage of food, skilled people in the arts have developed arts that block-shaped food, e.g. cheese, is provided in a container main body having a polygonal cross section, e.g. a rectangular cross section, an opening end provided at the bottom end of the container main body is sealed by a cutting mechanism; wherein the cutting mechanism includes a round plate having plural knife sections, and a ring-shaped holding cover provided at the opening at the bottom end of the container main body, a screw rod is axially and integratedly extended from the round plate, the screw rod is further screw-fitted with an extruding sheet having a shape corresponding to the cross sectional shape of the container main body. The round plate is fastened on an opening at the bottom end of the ring-shaped holding cover, so block-shaped food is able to be disposed between the round plate and the extruding sheet.
When the container main body is rotated, the extruding sheet is driven by the container main body and is downwardly moved along the screw rod, so the block-shaped food is pressed by the extruding sheet and is driven to rotate by the container main body, so the block-shaped food is cut by the knife sections of the round plate, so food having a desired shape or status is obtained.
Because the round plate of the cutting device for block-shaped food is fastened on the opening at the bottom end of the ring-shaped holding cover, effects of hygiene and storage of the food are provided. When the block-shaped food is consumed, the cutting device can not be reused and has no other choice but throwing away, so a cutting device capable of being repeatedly refilled with food after the original food is consumed can be reused is something that needs to be improved.
The U.S. Pat. No. 7,318,558 has disclosed “Devices and systems for cutting food and products originally in block form”, which is composed by a container main body, a cutting mechanism provided at the opening end of the container main body and an extruding mechanism provided with respect to the cutting mechanism. The extruding mechanism has an extruding sheet having a shape corresponding to the cross sectional shape of the container main body, so the extruding sheet is able to be driven to rotate by the container main body, the extruding sheet has a central hole that is engaged with a screw rod integratedly formed and axially extended from the cutting mechanism. When a relative movement is generated between the container main body and the cutting mechanism, the extruding sheet is moved along the screw rod, and the food is pressed toward the cutting mechanism; the extruding sheet includes a pair of long holes radially extended from the central hole so an orifice of the central hole is defined; the pair of long holes define at least two partition sections provided on the extruding sheet and capable of being elastically opened and approached toward each other, when the partition sections are separated, the orifice of the central hole is expanded, so the screw rod is able to be separated from the central hole and the extruding sheet is separated from the cutting mechanism, therefore block-shaped food is able to be refilled.
In view of the structure of the extruding sheet mentioned above, a sealing status has to be obtained by engaging the screw rod and the orifice of the central hole, and a separating status has also to be obtained by expanding the orifice of the central hole for being separate from the screw rod. The described extruding sheet basically has be to made of resilient materials, e.g. plastic; during the repeated switch between the sealing and the separating statuses, the elastic of the central hole is easy to fatigue or screw teeth are likely to be damaged so a function of engaging with the screw rod is no longer provided. Therefore the described means of separating the extruding sheet and the cutting mechanism is not an effective solution for providing a function of being able to be repeatedly refilled with food.